SK Chemicals said it has agreed to develop new drugs with inCerebro, a local artificial intelligence (AI) drug development company based on quantum mechanics technology.
Under the accord, inCerebro will derive new drug candidate substances for specific diseases based on its quantum mechanics-based molecular modeling technology and AI platform. SK Chemicals will be responsible for validating candidate substances, including non-clinical and clinical trials, and licensing and producing the newly developed drug.
According to SK Chemicals, inCerebro owns MIND, a molecular modeling technology platform, which organically finds new drug candidates through molecular modeling technology and artificial intelligence, such as AI conducting active learning.
Unlike existing AI drug development companies, SK Chemicals stressed MIND has a differentiating ability to provide solutions that further increase drug affinity and hit rate of candidate substances by applying quantum dynamics technology.
"In the process of developing new drugs, modeling such as docking is one of the fields that undergo a lot of trial and error in deriving and verifying candidate substances due to minute differences at molecular and quantum levels," SK Chemicals R&D Center Director Kim Jeong-hoon said. "inCerebro's differentiated technology will enable more accurate and rapid discovery of new drug candidates."
Kim added that the two companies would also seek commercialization opportunities to develop new drugs and inCerebro's candidate materials.
inCerebro CEO Cho Eun-sung also said, "The company expects that the competitiveness of the MIND platform that the company has accumulated so far will create synergies through joint research with SK Chemicals, which has abundant experience and organizational power in various new drug development fields."
The company will strengthen cooperation so that the competitiveness of the two companies can lead to breakthrough drug development outcomes, Cho added.
SK Chemicals has been promoting new drug development in partnership with big data researchers and AI specialists in its open innovation strategy.
As part of its innovative project, the company conducts joint research on various tasks with AI partners, such as Standigm, Cimplrx, Deargen, and Dr. Noah.